complete verse (John 5:12)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 5:12:

  • Uma: “They asked him: ‘Who commanded you (sing.) to carry your (sing.) mat?'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “‘Who is the person who told you that?’ they said.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And the man answered, ‘Which person told you to roll up your mat and to walk around?'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘And who perhaps (particle of strong disapproval) is the one who said that?’ they inquired.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “‘Who is that who said that to you,’ said the Judio, ‘that you should carry it and go?'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Then he was told, ‘Who told you to pick up your mat and go?'” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on John 5:12

In Greek the text reads “who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your mat, and walk’?” But the expression “pick up your mat and walk” has already occurred in verse 11; hence a substitute phrase, do this, may be employed here, as a matter of English style. Also this construction avoids the difficulty of “quotations within quotations.”

The term man is perhaps used contemptuously by the Jewish authorities. Something of the meaning of contempt may be expressed in English by using the term “fellow,” for example, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick up your mat and walk?”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on John 5:12

5:12

Who is this man who told you to pick it up and walk?: See the notes on 5:11c and try and use the same terms here.

it: The Greek word the Berean Standard Bible translates as it refers to the mat that the man had been lying on.

they asked: The pronoun they refers to the Jewish leaders. See note 5:10a under “the Jews.” Translate this in a way that is natural in your language.

General Comment on 5:12b

This sentence includes an embedded quotation, a quotation inside another quotation. In some languages, it may be more natural to use indirect speech. For example:

“Who is the man who told you to carry your mat?” they asked.
-or-
They asked him who had told him to pick up his mat.

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.